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Dwyer is starting to win me over but I'm not quite there yet. Sure he had a great game but after running twenty yards and then basically falling over forward he tapped out of the game. In a pre-season game, Redman, carried the ball 8 straight times with the last carry going for thirty yards and he tapped out of the game. Redman caught a rash of crap for that and was in Tomlins doghouse because of it.

Dwyer has finally shown me he has talent. Now he has to show me he has heart.

The KID gets his first start in the NFL and runs for 120+ yards and still can't get any love.

I mean, when we needed him, he stepped up and delivered.

While other players were dropping balls left and right, he took care of his business.

I really hope this was his coming out party.
Pretty good one if you ask me.

If his name was Issac Redman you would have posters falling all over themseleves to make space for him in the Hall of Fame. Dwyer did a great job, however to compare him to Bettis is laughable. Let Dwyer perform like that for about another dozen games before we even make such a silly comparison

Playing Fantasy Football does not qualify you to be the in the front office or on the coaching staff of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They are professionals and you are not!

Steelers running back Jonathan Dwyer put the game away with a first-down run against the Bengals late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012, at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati

Coach Mike Tomlin didn’t hide his displeasure that Jonathan Dwyer’s lost fumble cost the Steelers a valuable possession during their last-second loss Sept. 23 in Oakland.

So Tomlin delivered a message to Dwyer, and made certain his teammates knew about it, too.

According to right guard Ramon Foster, Tomlin posted on the team meeting room message board that Dwyer wouldn’t play the next week against Philadelphia. Tomlin also held him out of the Tennessee game.

For Dwyer, it was one fumble and two games lost.

“Coach put it on the board for everyone to know that he wasn’t playing that weekend,” Foster said after Dwyer ran for 122 yards in his first career start, the Steelers’ 24-17 win Sunday night in Cincinnati. “I’m glad to see him respond.”

Dwyer, back in uniform for the first time since the fumble, ran for 122 yards and a 7.2 yards per carry average in his first career start. It was the most yards by a Steelers back since Rashard Mendenhall ran for 146 yards in a 17-13 decision over Jacksonville on Oct. 16, 2011.

“That will make you hungry right there,” Foster said of Tomlin’s decision to hold out Dwyer. “That will make you hungry.”

The Steelers’ 167 rushing yards were their most in eight games dating to last season, and all that production wasn’t entirely the result of them going against the NFL’s 21st-ranked rushing defense.

Dwyer’s performance helped make the Steelers (3-3) multidimensional offensively for the first time in an uneven season. They came in with 1,429 yards rushing but only 379 yards rushing, their most lopsided balance since the Tommy Maddox-led offense of 2003.

Dwyer’s second career 100-yard game came with the top two running backs, Rashard Mendenhall and Isaac Redman, and starting offensive linemen Maurkice Pouncey and Marcus Gilbert out with injuries. Rookie Mike Adams also made his first career start at right tackle.

“It was an opportunity, and the next man is supposed to step up,” Dwyer said. “There’s no letdown, even though our top two guys went down.”

Similarly, the offensive line responded with its best effort of an uneven season, as illustrated by left guard Willie Colon’s pile-driving block on rookie Vontaze Burfict. Not only did Colon pancake Burfict into the ground, he kept on driving into him even while the two were on the turf.

“I was hungry and tired of losing on the road,” Colon said, referring to the Steelers’ 0-3 start away from home. “If I’ve got to start a fight to get this team going, I’ve got no problem doing it. ... For me, if I have to be the bully, I have no problem doing it.”

Dwyer said, “All that did was fire us up.”

Now the question is whether Dwyer earned another start against the Redskins (3-4) on Sunday at Heinz Field. There is a chance Mendenhall and Redman will return.

“I’m impressed with him,” Foster said. “Maybe a few years down the road he’ll be one of the great backs here.”

It wasn’t all Dwyer, either; rookie Chris Rainey, the No. 5 running back on the depth chart, scored his first career touchdown on a victory-sealing 11-yard run.

“It felt good, but I know how to win,” the former Florida player said. “I know what it feels like to win. I know what it takes to win.”

For the first time since they won Jan. 1 at Cleveland, 13-9, the Steelers knew what it took to win on the road, too. All they needed was a running game.

If his name was Issac Redman you would have posters falling all over themseleves to make space for him in the Hall of Fame. Dwyer did a great job, however to compare him to Bettis is laughable. Let Dwyer perform like that for about another dozen games before we even make such a silly comparison

Sure, but one other Bettis-Dwyer comparison is that Bettis always seemed to have his biggest games against Cincy, and that happened to be Dwyer's breakout game as well.

There really is no comparison to Bettis any where to be found. He was a very unique, special back. And he also carried about 40 more lbs than JD. He was the ONLY big back to have such a long career. Most big backs are done in a few seasons. But we don't need JD to be Bus; we just need JD to be a JD giving full effort and in relative good shape and we will be fine.

The Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled to run the ball this season, but Jonathan Dwyer's breakout performance against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday night offers hope.

Dwyer's 122 yards on the ground was the most by a Steelers back in more than a year, but the third-year pro knows who's boss in Pittsburgh. Rashard Mendenhall is close to returning from an Achilles' injury and Isaac Redman (ankle) is on his way back, too. Dwyer won't stand in their way.

"If they were to be back, I have no problem," Dwyer told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "He (Mendenhall) is the starter and he's earned that here. All I tried to do Sunday was solidify myself as a player."

Coach Mike Tomlin said Dwyer is "evolving as a player and as a person," and beat writer Mark Kaboly believes the young back might eventually take over the starting role if he continues to shine over the final 10 games of the season.

Mendenhall's in the final year of his rookie deal. The Steelers are paying him $2 million this year, and might shy away from a big second contract for a running back coming off knee surgery.

Dwyer will be a restricted free agent in 2013 and the Steelers have decisions to make in their backfield. Pittsburgh is targeted to land as high as $15 million over the salary cap heading into next season, and somebody won't be back. It's a subplot to keep an eye on in the Steel City.

Jonathan Dwyer has been compared to Hall of Fame running back Jerome Bettis because of their similar running styles.

One hit wouldn’t typically bring down Bettis, and Dwyer is proving he rarely goes down on the first hit, either. That again became evident Sunday against the Washington Redskins.

Dwyer rushed for more than 100 yards in his second consecutive start, and a lot of those yards came after he was initially hit.

Dwyer (5-foot-11, 229 pounds) carried 17 times for 107 yards, 68 coming after first contact. Add that to the 114 of his 122 yards coming after contact in a win over Cincinnati on Oct. 21, and that’s 71 percent of his yards in his two career starts coming after contact.

Dwyer’s biggest yards-after-contact play against the Redskins came in the first quarter, when he cut back and raced 15 yards untouched before running over safety Reed Doughty to gain another 19 yards.

Dwyer is averaging 4.1 yards per attempt after contact — second best in the league behind Buffalo’s C.J. Spiller, who leads the league at 4.7 yards. No other running back in the NFL average more than 3.3 yards per attempt after contact.

Other observations

• The Redskins apparently didn’t believe it would benefit them by putting pressure on Ben Roethlisberger, thus adding pressure to their already suspect secondary. Washington sent more than four pass rushers only four times in 30 non-goal-line situations, and Roethlisberger made them pay when they did send more than four. Roethlisberger completed 3 of 4 passes for 47 yards in those situations. The only incompletion was a drop by Emmanuel Sanders.

• Mike Wallace, who caught seven passes for 62 yards, is averaging about 7 fewer yards per reception compared to two years ago, and that lack of sending the speedy receiver deep continued Sunday. Wallace had passes thrown to him of 8, 3, -3, 13, 5, 9, 7, 3 and 10 yards.

• The Redskins add elements to their read/option scheme every week. However, against the Steelers, the option wasn’t a big part of the game plan, especially when it came to Robert Griffin III. Only eight option runs were called (seven went to Alfred Morris), five passes off the option and two designed run calls for Griffin — a quarterback draw and an option read around right end.

• The Redskins were initially credited with 10 dropped passes — Santana Moss four, Josh Morgan two and Leonard Hankerson, Chris Cooley, Evan Royster and Darrel Young one each. In reality, they had seven, but a lot of those were aided by Steelers’ defenders. Will Allen tipped one and dislodged another. Keenan Lewis’ hit on Morgan forced him into a drop. Brett Keisel got his hand in the way of Royster, prompting him not to hold onto a pass. And tight coverage from Cortez Allen and Ike Taylor forced Moss into a drop. Add two poor passes — one to Morgan and another to Moss — and it looked a lot worse for Redskins receivers than it really was.

• Lewis had one of the best games. He allowed two catches for 23 yards and recorded three pass defenses and two impressive tackles — one on Morris behind the line of scrimmage and the other on a quarterback draw that kept Griffin out of the end zone.

• James Harrison didn’t play a competitive snap in nine months because of a knee injury before returning in Week 5. Since then, he missed one snap, and that came against the Redskins. Harrison has been on the field for 243 of the Steelers 244 snaps since his return.

• Want to know how good Maurkice Pouncey is? All you have to do is look at the third-quarter direct snap run by Chris Rainey. Pouncey pulled and slammed into DeAngelo Hall 5 yards downfield, helping Rainey pick up 19 yards. Also impressive was rookie Mike Adams, who was 8 yards downfield knocking London Fletcher backward.

• The Redskins were initially credited with 10 dropped passes — Santana Moss four, Josh Morgan two and Leonard Hankerson, Chris Cooley, Evan Royster and Darrel Young one each. In reality, they had seven, but a lot of those were aided by Steelers’ defenders. Will Allen tipped one and dislodged another. Keenan Lewis’ hit on Morgan forced him into a drop. Brett Keisel got his hand in the way of Royster, prompting him not to hold onto a pass. And tight coverage from Cortez Allen and Ike Taylor forced Moss into a drop. Add two poor passes — one to Morgan and another to Moss — and it looked a lot worse for Redskins receivers than it really was.

Yeah, that's more like it. I love how those with an agenda have been trotting out the 10 drops the past few days. It shows that they either did not actually watch the game or are only trying to further their not-so-hidden agenda.

If his name was Issac Redman you would have posters falling all over themseleves to make space for him in the Hall of Fame. Dwyer did a great job, however to compare him to Bettis is laughable. Let Dwyer perform like that for about another dozen games before we even make such a silly comparison

I agree... I guess we should be happy with Dwyer getting less touches now that he showed he can actually produce in a game that mattered. Matter a fact... lets call him nothing more than a #2 RB and downplay anything good that he does until Mendenhall comes back.